Improvement in machinery for separating metals from ores



3 SheetsV-Sheet 1.

J. HITCHINGS.

Machinery Yfor Separating Metals from Ores.

` Patented May 15, 1866.

V Y Sheets-Sheet 2'.

.|. A. H I'TCHINGS.

` Machinery for Separting 'Metals from Gres.v No. 54,726.i l 4 Patented May'l5, 1866.

\ 3 Sheets-Sheet s. J. A. HlTCHiNGS. Machinery far Separating Metals from Oies.

Patented 'May 15, 1866.v

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UNITED STATESl PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN A. HITCHINGS, OF DENVER CITY, COLORADO.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR SEPARATING METALS FROM GRES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 511,726, dated May 15, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN A. HrTcHINes, of Denver City, in the county of Arapahoe and Territory of Colorado, have made new and useful Improvements in Machinery for Separating Metals from Orcs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the nature, construction, and operation of the same, sufficient to enable one skilled in the art to which appertains to construct and use the saine. reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which are made part of this specification, and in Which- Figure l is a plan or top view. Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line x a', Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line y y, Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a detached view of the furuacepan.

My invention consists of a number of portions through which the ores are consecutively passed, and which are, first, a stampingmill; second, a series of crushing rollers third, a furnace; fourth, a cold water tank; fifth, an amalgamator; sixth, an arrastra; seventh, a second amalgamator.

a The ore descends in all these successive operations, so as not to require to be mechanically raised or lifted as itis passed from one to the other. The fumes are carried from the various portions Where heat is applied, so as not to interfere with health, and the valuable vapors are condensed and returned to the apparatus at a point beyond the influence of the furnace.

The ore is fed into the machine at the hopper I, whence it passes to the chamber A, where it is exposed to the stalnpers B B, which are moved vertically by the shaft E and allowed to drop into the mortars C, which are in an inclined series, and which connect by slots which extend half of their depth, and by which the comminuted ore passes from one to anotherl through the series until it is discharged at the spout H.

The motion of the stamps is produced by means of cams or cogs on the shaft E, which latter is rotated bythe band K, which connects the pulley L on the shaft E with the pulley J on the main shaft M.

The pounded ore from the spout H passes along the inclined Hoor O under the crushingrollers N N, which are rotated in the same direction by the cog-Wheels N N', which are'rotated by a band, G, from the pulley F on the shaft E.

The ore, being further reduced by the action of the rollers N N, passes by the Way of the spout P into a pan, Q, in thel furnace S, where the ore is hea-ted and a stream of mercurial vapor brought into contact with it by means of the pipe T. Vater from the tank R, as may be required, (hot preferred,) is poured occasionally upon the heated pan Q to prevent the aggregation of the ore to the pan. The motion of the pan and its inclined position cause the comminuted and heated ore to be discharged into the chamber U, Where the mineral oil which may not have been removed by the destructive distillation iioats to the top and is carried off by a discharge-pipe.

From the chamber U the ore falls into the amalgamating chamber V, which is charged with mercury, and in which is a revolving vertical shaft, X, on which are spiral wings W, which agitate the contents as lthe shaft is revolved by the bevel-wheels Y and the band r from a pulley on the shaft M.

. The union of the quicksilver with the precious metals having been mainly completed in the chamber V, the amalgam is discharged by the pipe m into the arrastra j, Where the roller K on the muller 7c on the revolving bed lhas the effect of bringing the particles of mercury and precious metal into still closer contact. A stream of water from the .pipe t' is introduced into the arrastra and the amalgampulp is carried by the pipe a into the final amal gamator o, whose vertical shaft, with beater charged with mercury, revolves under the nluence of the pulley q, which is rotated by the belt t from the pulley on the shaft of the arrastra-roller k.

The volatile fumes from the amalgamator V and the arrastra k l are carried by the flue Z Z, together with those from the furnace, to the chamber b, having previously, in the, chamber a, been expose'd to the refrigerating action of cool water by the passage of the flue Z in a downwardly-inclined direction through` the water-chamber a. Whatever fume or vapor becomes condensed in this angle of the pipe is returned by the pipe h to a chamberI or pan, 71.', where it is utilized or collected.`

The vapor escaping at the end of the flue Z into the chamber b is exposed to a showerbath, c, to cleanse it of mercurial andsulphurons vapor, and is then allowed to escape by the chimney f.

The water for the supply of the various portions is derived from the tank d, which supplies the shower-bath chamber c' by means of the pipe c, and the arrastra by means of the pipe t'. The condensed vapor of the chamber b is discharged, along with that from the lower descending an gle of Z, into the pan 7L.

The character of the furnace-pan which receives the comminuted ore from the rollers is designed to be as in Fig. 4, which consists of a cast-iron disk, a, four to six feet in diameter, placed over the furnace and supported by a pivot-pin on which it slowly revolves by means of the application of power to the pinion-shaft w coming through the Wall ofthe furnace and gearing with a rack on the under side of the plate. A few inches above this plate is a rod, T, to which scrapers X are attached, which, by the revolution of the disk beneath, gradually remove the ore toward the periphery of the plate, where it falls into a spout which conducts itin its heated condition to the amalgamator. The flame of the furnace is admitted to pass around the edge of the disk and reverberates above it. The upper surface ot' the plate is covered with fireclay, soapstone, or some hre-proof material thicker toward the center, and air is admitted by the discharge -sluice, furnace doors, or through holes in the covering.

A small hollow cylinder is placed over the feed-sluice P, and is charged with soda, lime, or any other reagent, which is discharged into the passing ore and is fed with itto the roaster.

Set-screws above the rollers N N serve to gage their pressure upon the partially powdered ore which passes beneath them.

The arrastra has a circular concave castiron bed of four to six feet diameter, mounted on a stout table, Z, and revolving on a central pivot-ball and casters set in the frame under the periphery or rim of the bed. The bed is strengthened byflan ges beneath, has a rim of several inches elevation, and has fixed across it an iron cylinder, K, of about sixteen inches diameter in the center and eight or ten at the ends, which is driven by abelt and connected to the bed by cog-and-pii'iion gear, thus producing` a rubbing and sliding aswell as grinding motion. Set-screws over the beams ofthe cylinder admit of an intimate and perfect pulverization and amalgamation. An opening in the rim through afine screen with a circular catch-lift, carries the oatin g refuse to a copper amalgamator, 0, shaped like a circular tea-caddy, which is provided with a revolving stirrer, and an opening near the bottom with slide-door to clean out its contents at. rEhe pulp passes in at the side and out at the top. The inside is coated with quicksilver, and also charged with a few pounds of it. The copper amalgamator o,being coated with mercury, serves to arrest any floating particles A of unamalgamized gold, and may be profitably used at the tail end of the quartz-mill to catch our-gold in muddy water.

The cooler and first amalgamator and the arrastra are covered with dome-casings, and have pipes leading to the smoke-stack of the furnace to carry o the poisonous vapors lib erated. The smoke-stack is bent down horizontally a few feet above the furnace and earried with a depressing angle of its own diameter below a horizontal line some eight feet into a sheet-iron vessel, and then turned up perpendicularly three feet and cutoff in a dry chamber of several feet square. The vapors not settling in this chamber pass over a partition-wall at the end opposite their entrance, where a shower-bath of cold water from a reservoir above washes them down to the cistern below, the condensed vapors sinking therein to be drawn off by a pipe beneath, while the oating refuse passes out at a small opening to a waste-sluice with the surplus water. The smoke and other uncondensed vapors go out at a large opening near the turn-up elbow to an outside chimney, and thence to the open air.

These improvements are especially designed for pyritous ores, in which the presence of a mineral oil prevents the perfect amalgamation. The object, after reducing it to powder, is to heat it in contact with alkali and quicksilver fumes and then plunge it into cold water, when the mineral oil not previously dissipated will oat and may be conveyed away, while the sediment being ground with mercury will be very perfectly amalgamated and the precious metals afterward separated.

Having described myinvention, whatI claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The arrangement of the mortars, rounded stamps, and slotted connecting-openings, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The arrangement, as asequence to'the subject-matter of the first claim, of the rollers N in the trough, for the further comminution of the ore received from the stamps.

3. A basin-shaped revolving roasting-plate, Fig. 4, provided with scrapers, as described, and with a vessel containing salts of soda, alum, or potash, which are intermingled with the ground ore.

4:. The arrangement, with the revolving roaster, of the cold-water tank which receives the heated ore therefrom, as described.

5. The arrangement of the roasting -plate, cold-water bath, amalgamator, and arrastra, as described.

6. The quicksilver-coated copper amalgamator, acting as a iinai means of arresting nonmercurialized metals, arranged and operated as described.

7. The condenser, arranged as described, consisting of the iiue Z, passing through the water-chamber, the discharge-pipes h, and the chamber b, Ithe shower-bath c, and eXit-uef.

JOHN A. HlTGHINGS. Witnesses:

J As. R. GALLEMORE, CHARLES L. GHINIQUY. 

